Valley and Vacations

 

The small mountain valley where I grew up, just about everyone knew everyone else, or at least someone in the family.   There was one school district with an elementary school housing grades K-6 and one high school for grades 7-12.  Many people are related, with grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins living close by.  My grandparents lived next door to us on the family farm, and my Aunt and her family lived nearby in town when I was very young, but moved to another area of the state when my Uncle was transferred while I was in elementary school.  These cousins are all quite a bit older than I am, but we still visited with them quite often, mostly when they came to visit our grandparents.

The predominant religion in the area is The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, with 6 different wards or congregations in the valley when I was young, and one Community Christian Church.  We all went to the same schools, and attended many of the same church activities and community events.  There was one small movie theater that showed a different second run movie every Friday and Saturday night for a very low admissions price, and of course there were always the high school football and basketball games, school plays and concerts for Friday night entertainment too.  There was an annual Fiesta Days celebration with parades, a livestock show, rodeos, a beauty queen pageant, and even a demolition derby.  Everyone pretty much knew everyone else, and 

There are several small towns with farms scattered about between the towns.   The growing season is quite short, so the main crops are meadow hay and alfalfa, and most of the farms raise either beef or dairy cattle.  Goats and sheep and chickens, and of course dogs and horses are also common.  Apples and plums grow quite well, peaches and pears do not. Potatoes and carrots and radishes and peas and cabbage and green beans usually grow quite well, but tomatoes and corn and peppers usually don't have time to mature before the first frosts hit. 

Because dairy cattle require daily care with feeding and milking, we didn't take very many family vacations.   The hay usually wasn't ready for cutting until July and August, so June was usually the best time for us to get away for a few days.  Grandpa and a cousin or local young man would take over the milking and other chores and we would all load up in the current family car with our parents -- four of us in the front seat and  four of us in the back, and  we would head out of state for a few days to see new places, historical sites and national parks, and usually to visit with extended family members.  During my high school years we visited Spokane and Seattle Washington one year, and San Francisco, the costal highway, and Los Angeles another year.   Some years we packed up our tent and sleeping bags and drove a few miles further up the mountains to camp and hike and maybe even fish for a  few days .  Another year saw us visiting Yellowstone National Park and relatives in Montana, with the adults traveling on to Alberta Canada and leaving us young ones in the care of our young adult cousins on their family farm.  We also visited Zions and Brice Canyons in Utah another year.   Some nights we would rent a motel room or a cabin and cook our own dinners and breakfasts, and other times we would stay with the relatives in their homes.  After a few days of such wonderful togetherness, we were usually quite content to arrive back to our own home to the mountain valley, ready to face the busy/lazy summer months of work and play before school began again.

What was the community like where you grew up?  Did you take family vacations as a child or teenager?  Did you go camping and hiking?  What are some of your favorite memories?
 

Typing and Temples

 

Typing was one of my favorite classes as a teenager, and I signed up the first year that it was offered to our grade.   It was nice to learn on the IBM Selectric electric typewriters that we had in the Business classroom at our school.  They had the roller ball, that was removable so you could even change the font, which was very cool for those days.  We did need to have a good eraser with the brush on the end for correcting our errors (I'm sure I had as many or more than most students), and learned to use the carbon paper to make copies too.  At home we had a big manual typewriter that my mother used to type letters to her parents and siblings, type up her reports as Stake Primary Secretary at church, and sometimes even write some fiction or other articles that she submitted to magazines.   Many of my siblings and I have also tried our hand at writing some fiction . . . mostly just for the fun of it.  Now days children learn to type at a very young age, and can quickly adapt from traditional computer keyboards to cell phones, to any type or size of device.  I wonder how well they would do on our old fashioned typewriters?

Temples  of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints are different from the thousands of Church meetinghouses located around the world where we meet for weekly worship services and other regular activities.  Temples are holy places set apart for sacred service and ordinances.   When I was a teenager we very rarely had the opportunity to attend the temple, and during all of my growing up years I was only able to attend our nearby temple one time to participate in performing baptism ordinances for ancestors and others who have died without having the opportunity to be baptized.   Things have changed over the years, and when my children were teenagers, they were able to attend the temple at least several times a year, if not weekly if they wanted to.   All of the temples were closed for a period of time during the recent pandemic, but have gradually been opening up, and now most are open for us to attend by appointment.  I'm grateful to have had many opportunities since my teenage years to visit and participate in sacred temple ordinances in many different temples all over the country, and there is one currently being constructed just a mile or so from my house!

When and how did you learn to type?

Have you ever visited a Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints?

Quilts

 

My mother wasn't a fancy quilter, but a practical one.  She put together and quilted or tied a large number of quilts in her life-time, mostly for her children and other relatives.  Especially during my teenage years when we were "mostly" grown, she had more time for sewing and quilting.  Much like her mother and aunties had made quilts for her and her siblings and cousins, she sewed and quilted for her own children and nieces and nephews.  I remember one Christmas break in particular when my siblings and I were all participants in the quilt creation process.  We had an assembly line with probably two sewing machines sewing the patches together while listening to Christmas music on the radio.  Mums mostly did simple patterns with square blocks, many created from leftover fabric from our dresses or other clothing that she had sewn over the years.) Once the quilt top was sewn, the "sandwich" was created with a plain backing fabric, the fluffy batting filling in the center, and the patchwork on the top.  These were all stretched onto the quilting frames put together by my Daddy, and then we all gathered around to put in our share of the stiches, either right next to or right inside the "ditch" or the patchwork seams.  Once everything was quilted, Mums would hand stitch the binding around the edges, and then the quilt was ready for gifting.  

Other times we would gather together with Aunts and Uncles and cousins for quilting showers for whichever cousin was about to be married.   The Aunts would have the quilt top and sandwich all prepared, and we would gather around stitching, visiting, and of course, eating delicious pot luck lunches with lots of goodies.    And of course, when I did marry in my early twenties, we were gifted several quilts that were made by my dear mother, and another very treasured quilt made by my Aunts and quilted by my cousins . . . and including many stitches put in by my own dear husband.

Did you grow up with any quilting traditions in your family?   Do you have a treasured quilt?

Happy Easter

 

 

Kitchen Memories

 

The Kitchen, at least in the home I grew up in, was the heart of our home.  In fact, I also blogged about our family's kitchen back in the 2016 A to Z challenge  when I wrote about childhood memories.  As a teenager I spent less time in the kitchen than I had when I was a young child, but this kitchen was still the center of our family life.   I preferred cooking over many of the outdoor chores such as milking and hauling hay, so did help out a fair amount with cooking the meals in the summer time, and of course I was almost always up for baking cookies and cakes and brownies or homemade candy at Christmas time.  I even hosted a bridal shower for my cousin who married shortly after we both graduated from high school and prepared most of the refreshments myself.  Hopefully they were delicious.  At least no one complained.  If I remember correctly my favorite pumpkin bread recipe was on the menu, along with a ribbon sandwich loaf made with home made bread.

Yes, countless batches of home made bread were baked in this kitchen, mostly by my sweet, hardworking mother.   She was famous for her homemade bread, and all of her children and grandchildren and many many others will agree!   In their retirement years, my Daddy started taking over the bread baking duties, and this photo of him showing off his skills is in the kitchen is one of my favorites.  He also made amazing carrot/raisin/oatmeal cookies too!  

My mother also spent hours in the kitchen sewing and ironing  . . . clothes and quilts for her children, and even made quilts for many of her nieces and nephews.  Yes, this photo below shows my sister using Mum's old singer sewing machine.  I think I was reading?    I wasn't particularly fond of ironing, and still am not, but my angel mother would faithfully iron many of my clothes, making sure the creases in the slacks were just right for my picky tastes.  Was I a bit spoiled as a teenager?  I actually think that I was.  She used both the traditional iron and ironing board (not pictured), but also used the green Ironrite ironing machine pictured below for many years to iron everything from jeans and overalls to sheets and pillowcases and linen tablecloths and napkins.

Do you have favorite kitchen memories?

Jobs

 

Jobs can be pretty important to teenagers.  After all, you need to have some spending money, right?  In our family we did get an allowance starting quite young, where we were free to choose how to spend our 25 cents or a dollar, or whatever the amount was.  We were encouraged to pay tithing of 10% to the church, and to put some aside in savings.   When we started 4-H at about eight years old, Daddy gifted us a young heifer calf as a 4-H project.  When the calf became a cow, the profits from the milk produced by our cow would take the place of our allowance.   Most of the time this was a rather hefty allowance increase, but we were also expected to pay for most of our own expenses such as school clothes and supplies, in addition to whatever else we wanted or needed.   Regular chores didn't earn us extra money, but helping with hauling the hay did.   I didn't have regular babysitting jobs like some other girls in town, but there were a couple of families that did call me to babysit from time to time, so I did earn some money that way.

My first "real" job besides babysitting and hauling hay was doing some data entry work for the local telephone company one summer when they needed some extra help.  The owner of the company contacted our high school business teacher, and she recommended me and another of my FBLA friends for the job.  It only lasted a week or two until their regular billing system up and running, but I did get a taste for what it would be like to work a full time job . . . which I didn't ever have until after the youngest of my 6 children entered kindergarten.  

Did you have an allowance growing up?  What was your first job or way of earning money?

Home Ec, 4-H, Hauling Hay and Historian

 Home Economics was a required half-year class in both 7th and 8th grade for girls in Junior High School back when I was in school. Most of the boys were required to take Shop or Industrial Education.  I believe that in the older grades girls could sign up for Industrial Education, or boys for Home Ec, but I actually don't remember for sure.  Mostly we just did what we were told.  

Seventh grade Home Ec concentrated on cooking or foods, and eighth grade concentrated on sewing and clothing.   I didn't really mind my Home Ec classes, but they weren't my favorite classes either, since they taught the very basics and I felt I already knew just about everything that was taught.  Some things I learned from my dear Mother, and others from the mothers of my friends in town who volunteered to be the leaders of the local 4-H classes.   We were eligible to join our local 4-H clubs when we were 8 years old or in the third grade, and had a lot of fun with the weekly meetings/classes where we baked cookies and cakes and biscuits learned about nutrition and and prepared vegetable relish trays and egg salad sandwiches and such.  We also learned basic sewing skills and so by the time those of us in 4-H reached junior high school, we had already done quite a bit of cooking and had each made our own simple dress. 

Hauling hay is a given when you grow up on a dairy farm.  Granted, I wasn't always the biggest help with the hay hauling crews, but I have been out in the hay field almost every summer since I was only a toddler.  Since I had 5 other siblings and a variety of cousins who would also come and spend several weeks to help with the hay, I usually got away without doing a huge amount of the actual gathering up of bales of hay from the field and throwing them on the wagon.  Sometimes I would be on the wagon helping to stack the bales, and sometimes I would have the job of driving the tractor or truck pulling the wagon through the hay field.  The haying season usually started in late June and lasted through the middle to the end of August, depending on the year.   Some summers we had quite a bit of rain, and it was always a challenge to get the hay cut, dried, baled and into the barn before the rain came and ruined the hay.  Watching the weather forecast was a daily, sometimes multiple times daily event in our household.

During my senior year of high school I was honored to be elected as the Student Body Historian.  I wasn't expecting to be nominated for any kind of Student Body Office, but somehow I made it through the election process and was given that responsibility.  I attended the student body meetings and put together a scrapbook that highlighted the main school events of our Senior year, including the fact that our football team won 1st place in the State Championship for our division.   Being Historian was an honor, but it was also quite a responsibility, and one that I didn't quite finish until nearly the end of the summer after we graduated and headed off to college, but thankfully I was able to get the job done!

Did you take Home Economics Classes?  

Were you ever involved in 4-H clubs? 

Have you been involved in Student Government activities during your school years?

Grandpa's Garden

 

Grandpa in his garden in the early spring

My Grandpa ALW, (my Daddy's dad) always had a wonderful garden right in the eastern part of his front yard.  Though it was smaller than our large family garden that was located in front of the barn between our house and Grandpa's house, it was always well weeded, watered and produced an abundance of peas, beans, beets, carrots, turnips, onions, cabbage and other vegetables for Grandma and Grandpa's  own use and to share with friends and relatives.  The growing season in our mountain valley isn't very long, so crops like tomatoes and corn and squash usually didn't quite mature before the first frosts came.  All of the cousins have fond memories of raiding the pea patch for a fresh and nutritious snack. Grandpa  also had a beautiful border of orange daylilies, a row of delicate sweet peas, and a huge yellow rose between the pumphouse and the driveway.

 During his last years after Grandma was gone, when I was a teenager, he still kept up the garden.   I'm pretty sure my Daddy helped out a lot plowing or tilling it up in the spring, but the garden gave him purpose and exercise, and others still benefited from his generous gifts of produce. 

I don't really remember much about my Grandpa VW's garden ( my Mom's dad), though I know had one most of his life.  My Mom has talked and written memories of helping in the garden, and most families who had the space in those days did keep a vegetable garden during the depression and World War II years.  My memories of Grandpa VW's yard are of the luscious fruit trees!  Peaches and Cherries and probably pears and berries were in the back orchard behind the house.  I remember going for a visit in the summer time to pick and  bring home a bushel or two of cherries for bottling, and in the fall Grandpa would usually bring us a bushel or more of peaches.   What a treat, as our cooler valley only produced the apples and plums and strawberries.  We always had plenty of bottled fruit in the cellar.

I'm grateful that I have always had a spot to plant a garden and berries and sometimes even fruit trees in every home that we have lived in during our nearly forty years of marriage.  It is a lot of work, I will not lie, but gardening brings me a lot of joy, even in the years when it doesn't produce as well as I would like.  This year I've already planted peas, potatoes, spinach, lettuce and 5 brand new raspberry plants, and the apricot tree is already in bloom.  Spring gardens make me happy!  The old homestead with both my parent's home and my grandma and grandpa's home is now sold and the buildings are all gone, but I am lucky enough to have salvaged a few of my favorite plants that are now growing in my own yard . . . some of my mom's spring daffodils, and my grandpa's yellow roses and orange daylilies. 

Did you parents or grandparents have gardens or orchards?   

Do you grow a garden?

Grandpa's yellow rose bush

The old homestead circa 1955

Future Business Leaders of America

 

Future Business Leaders of America, or FBLA-PBLA was one of the major activities of my high school years.   The club was open to any students in the 9th through 12th grades.   In order to join we needed to be enrolled in a business or business related class, which was one of my interests.  I first enrolled in type classes, where we learned to type on the IBM  Selectric typewriters.  I also had classes in shorthand, and during my senior year was in the Business Block which was two full class periods of studying office procedures.   Our Business teacher was the State Chapter Advisor, and had also been my 2nd grade teacher in elementary school.  She and her family were also members of our local Ward or church congregation, and her eldest daughter was one of my group of friends.  I've always looked up to her and her family as examples and mentors in my life.

During the year we would  participate in regional and statewide business competitions and also be invited to attend the State and National FBLA Leadership Conferences.  Over the years I participated in events in Spelling and Parliamentary Procedures and Business Office Procedures.   My first times flying and staying in hotels in large cities were when we attended the National conferences in  Washington DC  and San Francisco in 1978.   I was actually able to participate in the competition for Business Procedures in San Francisco.   The competitions and activities allowed me to meet other high school students from all over the country and we were able to see many of the sights in these cities.  In Washington we toured the White House, the National Mint, Mount Vernon, and explored the Mall with the Washington and Lincoln memorials and the reflecting pools,  Arlington National Cemetery, The Library of Congress The National Zoo, and other many other sites. As a bonus, my older sister was able to join us as one of the chaperones on the Washington DC trip. In San Francisco I had my first dinner in China Town. I remember that I ordered Almond Chicken and loved it. We also explored Fisherman's Wharf and rode the boat to Alcatraz Island. 

I'm certain that my business classes and FLBA experiences helped prepare me to be able to find and at work part-time typist and office jobs throughout my college years, and to find the data entry job that has led to my current job at the local community college Admissions Office.  

Are any of you kind readers past or present members of FBLA-PBLA?  

What clubs or activities did you participate in  during your high school years?

Were you able to travel to new cities while you were in high school?

Extended Family

 

Extended Family has always played an important part in my life, and I posted a bit about my extended family last year for the letter F while blogging about blessings and tender mercies.  I also posted about my Grandparents back in 2016 when I blogged about my childhood memories.  I was very blessed to grow up living next door to my paternal grandparents, and we often had cousins visiting for holidays and weekends, and coming to stay and help out on the farm during the summer haying season. 

My maternal grandparents split their time between their summer home about 2 hours away from our family farm, and their winter home about 8 hours to the south, but we still did gather together every summer to visit and eat and catch up on all of the happenings with each individual family.  We sometimes would take our vacations to the cities where my uncles lived and spend time with cousins there.  And of course there were also Thanksgiving and Christmas celebrations with different families each year.

My cousins were probably my best friends outside of my siblings during my childhood, but as time moved me into my high school years, the dynamics changed quite a bit.  As one of the youngest of the children on both sides of the family, by the time I was a teenager, my grandparents were facing health struggles, many of the older cousins were married and starting families of their own, and we younger cousins were busy with extracurricular activities and jobs and school.   My Aunts still visited often, especially as my grandparents needed more help, but the frequent visits and long summer days spent playing with cousins pretty much ended.  Instead there were many weddings, graduations, missionary farewells and welcome homes  (in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, it is traditional for young men and many of the young women to serve an 18 to 24 month service and teaching mission between graduating from high school and getting married).  And, as happens in all families, there were also funerals.  

My first experience with having a close family member pass away was when I was in sixth grade, and my cousin and his newly wed wife were killed in a car accident while they were on the way for his weekend duty in the air force reserves. It was a shock for the entire extended family, as he was a much loved cousin and one of the first to marry.  Without the faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ and his gift of salvation and eternal life for all men and women, I'm sure our grief would have been even greater.

My paternal grandmother was the first of my grandparents to pass away, the day after my 12th birthday.  She had fallen and broken her hip or leg, and had spent some time in the hospital and was doing well, but then developed pneumonia, had a stroke, and passed on a few days later.   My grandfather continued to live alone in the house next door for the next four years.  He would come for Sunday dinner, and my Mom would send him home with a homemade TV Dinner of leftovers to heat up later during the week.  Daddy would of course check in with him every day, and my Aunts were frequent visitors to check in on him and help out with the seasonal cleaning.   One of them was visiting on the day he passed away.  He had gone to lie down for a nap on the living room couch where he had a heart attack and was quickly gone.

My maternal grandmother passed away a few months before my father's father.   She had been diagnosed with diabetes and had been failing in health for quite some time.  So I lost three of my grandparents within about four years of each other during my early to mid teenaged years.  My grandfather lived for another 18 years, remarried an old friend, and outlived her by quite a few years.  He passed away when I was a young mother living on the other side of the country and I was unable to attend his funeral, which was one of the hardest times for me during those years.

Though death is a hard thing, I believe it is not the end, and that our family relationships can be eternal and ever lasting.   Though I don't see my extended family nearly as much as I did when I was young, I still stay in touch with most of my cousins and my one remaining aunt through social media, and the occasional family reunion or funeral or other event.  I'm too tired right now to count, but my extended family now numbers in the hundreds with all of the children, spouses, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and even great-great grandchildren of my seven aunts and two uncles.  A grand posterity for both sides of my beloved family tree!

What memories do you have of your extended family?

Drill Team, Drama, Driver's Ed, Dances and Dates

 

Drill Team was probably my very favorite activity during my high school years.  I have always loved to dance, but there weren't many opportunities for dance classes in my small town/rural area.  I did have a few baton twirling and dance class lessons during elementary school, but always looked forward to trying out for and participating with the  high school drill team during their half-time performances at the football and basketball games.  I'm not particularly coordinated or talented when it comes to dancing, as much as I do love it, so even though I practiced hard and prepared my best for the try-outs for my freshman year, I didn't make the team.  To be honest, most freshmen didn't make the team.  But my friends and I tried once again for our sophomore year.   Again none of my group made the team.   Near the end of the summer, the girl's coach and advisor for the drill team contacted me to tell me that one of the members was not going to be able to participate, and so if I wanted it, I had a spot on the team!  I was torn, but had not saved up or prepared for the expenses of the uniform etc, nor had my friends made the team, so I gave up my spot to a younger freshman girl.  My family thought I was crazy since they knew how much I wanted to participate, but I didn't ever regret my decision, and the following year my best friends and I all made the team!  We sewed our own uniforms, had daily after school practices in addition to a full class period which counted as a PE credit, of course, and were able to travel on the bus to all of the away games for both football and basketball.  This was actually quite an amazing experience now that I look back on it, since as a rural community we competed against all of the other small rural schools all over our state, and we were able to travel and see many areas that my city born husband never experienced while growing up in the same state.  These were very small towns, mind you, but still an amazing experience to have growing up.

Drama was also an activity that I was able to participate in several years.  I did sign up for the Drama class with my friends during our freshman year, and participated in speech and drama meets throughout our region, doing readings or short one act performances.  We were also required to participate in the school plays.  If we didn't get a part in the play, we would help out with the sets, sound and lighting as part of the stage crew.  I did have very small parts in most of the plays, but really had a hard time breaking out of my shell to give a true performance.  But that's ok.  It was fun to be a part of the group, and to see all of the drama that happened both on and off the stage . . . for example when our leading lady's boyfriend happened to stop by a rehearsal one afternoon just in time to see her kiss her romantic interest.  It was a part of the play of course, but her boyfriend was definitely not happy about it!

Driver's Ed was also a rite of passage.  It was actually a fairly easy class both academically and for most of us the driving part was pretty easy too since we grew up driving tractors and trucks hauling hay in the fields.   So it was especially mortifying when I didn't pass my driving test.  The driving examiner would visit our small town once each month to administer the tests in the school owned Driver's Ed vehicle.   I was being so very careful to follow all of the rules of the road, and was shocked when after the test the examiner told me I had failed because I didn't brake fast enough when he told me to brake!  I'm sure there was something else that I had lost points on, but I was terribly embarrassed since the whole school knew that I had failed.  (That's just how it is in a small town where everyone knows everything that happens!)  My Driver's Ed teacher assured me that the examiner routinely failed someone or another, just to put some fear into the student's hearts.  And yes, the next month I did pass my test, and have been driving ever since.  Well, most of the time.  I didn't ever have  a car of my own until we were married for about five years, but I have done a lot of driving over the years.

Dances are a big part of high school years, but I must confess that they haven't always been a favorite activity.   Of course I started going to dances with my friends as soon as I was old enough.  During 7th and 8th grades there were one or two dances a year at school, and several other dances at church during the year.  We didn't have dates to the dances, but met up with our friends.  I learned early on what it feels like to be a wall flower and spend the evening holding up the wall, trying to smile and act like you are having fun.  Of course few 12 and 13 year old boys are brave enough to ask the girls to dance, and the boy you have the crush on is always going to be one of the most popular boys in town.  After a few such long, long, evenings, I made the decision that I would rather spend the evenings at home with my books.  

That being said, the most important dance of the year in my small town was the Junior Prom.  Formal attire was required; if not a tux, at least a suit for the young men and a formal dress for the young ladies, and couples often double or triple dated and traveled to nearby towns or to the city for dinner before or after the dance.  The Junior class had time off from class during the week before to decorate the gym with murals, streamers, disco balls and the works.   We also were expected to all participate in the Promenade choreographed performance at the half-time of the dance and parents and other interested town folk also bought their tickets to come and see the performance.  When we were juniors our class really did work together to make sure that every person who wanted to have a date to the Junior Prom, and my best friend and our dates did go out together for dinner at a fairly nice café in the neighboring county seat  (only a 30 minute drive from our hometown) before attending the dance.  My parents patiently took me to multiple stores down in the college town to find the "perfect" foam green prom dress, (which I still have in my closet!).  This was my first date, and my only true date of my high school years.   My date and I knew each other, of course, but were both very quiet and shy, and had never really talked before, or even much during the evening.  Thank goodness for good friends and double dates!

What do you remember about learning to drive?

What were your high school dating experiences?

Choir, Chores, and Church

 

Choir was my attempt to make up for no longer being able to fit Band classes into my school schedule.  I've always loved music and love to sing, but don't always hit the notes quite on pitch.  My family can attest to that after sitting with me here at home and listening to me singing along with the Tabernacle Choir and congregation during this past weekend's  General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  Hopefully I learned a few things during the year I participated in Choir, singing the Alto Harmony part.  I was a bit too shy or unconfident or reluctant to join the choir at church while I was in high school, but have since found that in spite of my singing deficiencies, no one is going to banish me from these voluntary choirs, so I have participated in church choirs most of my married life too.  At least until the Covid years.  I'm still not quite comfortable with singing unmasked in a group situation, even though numbers have been declining these past several weeks.  Maybe soon.  We will see.

Chores are a given part of life when you grow up on a dairy farm.   Of course there were the household chores that come along with being part of a functioning family, keeping your room clean and bed made and taking your turn washing dishes, washing, drying and folding laundry, setting the table, feeding the pets etc.  I also had the chore  for many years of bringing the cows home from their summer pasture every afternoon before milking, and then feeding the young calves their milk and hay and grain, washing up the feeding buckets, and sometimes feeding all of the cows their evening feeding of hay.  Many summer mornings also found me working with my siblings to hose and scrub down the concrete floors of milk barn after the morning milking, and of course, taking my turn to weed the family vegetable garden. 

Church was also a given part of all of my high school years, and all of my life.   Each Sunday morning my Dad and my older brothers would attend 9 am Priesthood Meeting, and the rest of the family would join     with them for 10 am Sunday School.  After dinner and a fairly quiet afternoon of  reading, writing letters or playing quiet games, or visiting with Grandparents and cousins next door and doing the evening milking and chores, we would return to Church at 7:30 pm for the Sacrament Meeting.   Then on another day of the week (Tuesday for the Ward or congregation where we lived) we would return for our weekly auxiliary meetings -- Primary was held at the church on Tuesday afternoons after school for children in the elementary school grades, and  Mutual lessons and activities for teenagers, Young Men and Young Women, were held on Tuesday evenings.  Relief Society lessons and activity or work days for adult women were held on Tuesday mornings.   In addition to the Sunday and week-day auxiliary meetings, we would often have sports practices and games  for basketball, volleyball, and softball, a yearly "Road Show" theater type production, yearly preparation meetings for a week long camp activity for the Young Women, (the boys participated in scouting troops) and other occasional dance or musical performances.  It makes me tired just remembering all of the Church activities we grew up participating in! 

 This split schedule has since changed, and now days congregations of The Church of Jesus  Christ of Latter-day Saints attend meetings in two hour blocks each Sunday.  The first hour is generally the Sacrament Meeting worship service with the second hour rotating between Sunday School and the auxiliary or Priesthood Meetings.  Teenagers do still gather together on a weekly basis for activities and and the women and children usually have a monthly activity too, but we seem to have a bit more time for home and family and other evening activities these days.

What kinds of chores did you have as a teenager?  

 Did you participate in Church services or activities?

Band, Basketball, and Bookworm

 

The very first extra-curricular activity that I participated in was the Jr High School Band program.  We started out during the summer before our 7th grade year by attending beginning sectional classes once or twice a week for an hour and gradually moved into meeting together with the entire band class, if I remember correctly.  I chose to learn to play the flute, and was very fortunate to have my parents purchase a flute for me to use, which I still have. During Jr High school we mainly performed  in several concerts each school year, and then in 9th grade we were able to participate with the Marching Band/Concert Band.  After my 9th grade year I chose to give up band class since it conflicted with another class I wanted to take, so I only participated with the marching band that performed in local  parades in the summer and during football and basketball games during the school year for that one year.   

Growing up in a small town, the local high school sports teams attracted quite the attendance at the regular Friday night games, especially during the football and basketball seasons  I attended games for both sports with my friends and siblings, but preferred Basketball over Football, probably because of the fast pace of the game.    People in town would joke that during the state championship playoffs the town would be so empty of people going to the city for the games that the town would completely shut down and they would roll up the streets!   I enjoyed watching the Basketball games, but I didn't really enjoy playing the sport myself.  I did play during gym class and tried to learn the basics.  WE also had a sports program at church, and I did play church basketball during junior high, but always felt that I was not a very good player, and was so nervous about letting down my team that I finally convinced my parents that I was ok to not play church ball.

I always have been just a bit of a bookworm, and that didn't change once I entered Jr High.  In fact, it might have gotten even worse during those years of insecurity and adjusting to life in a small town high school where everyone knew everyone else, and 7th graders were nervous walking down the hall that housed the upperclassmen lockers.  It was also exciting to have full access to the high school library and so many more books that we had at the elementary school library.  Biographies and historical fiction have always been among my favorites.  My best friend was a big fan of Louis Lamour, and the Black Stallion series.  I read a few of those, but I tended more towards books like the Shoe Books, or Christian romances and fiction.   My parents and siblings also were readers, especially my Mom, and our home was filled with books of all kinds, we subscribed to the Reader's Digest Condensed books, and almost always received books for birthdays and Christmas.  We also had the scholastic book club offerings in our English and Reading classes, and I almost always bought a new paper back book or two each time they came out.  After our parents passed away several years ago, one of the biggest jobs was sorting through all of their books and dividing them up between my siblings and I.  Needless to say, I still have many of these same books that I enjoyed reading all of those years ago, including some that had originally belonged to my grandparents, including several by Gene Stratton Porter, and Janice Holt Giles. 

How about you?   Did you participate in Band or Basketball during your school years?   Would you consider  yourself a Bookworm?   What were some of your favorite books or authors during your high school years?

Finding Peace and Hope -- General Conference

 I'm taking a break from blogging A to Z this weekend in order to listen to the sessions of the April  General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Please join me and thousands of others who are seeking hope and guidance and peace as we gather to listen to the words of prophets and apostles of Jesus Christ. 

    Join us for the 192nd Annual General Conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/learn/ways-to-watch-general-conference?lang=eng&fbclid=IwAR0OrcrxOEG_H8Uuo4fMdC4fhMQFmP1SZG3iJZ7De57jw01G4MVYKF5uFzo

Link to Facebook Post

 Here is an Invitation from Bonnie H Cordon:

Link to Facebook video

Link to Live Sessions of General Conference

Afternoons and After School

 

Afternoons during my high school years really varied.  Since I grew up in a small community and attended a fairly small high school, grades 7 through 12 were all housed in the same school, so even though seventh and eighth graders were technically junior high, this A to Z challenge will touch on topics central to my life during all six years of junior high and high school.

During junior high, there weren't too many extra curricular activities available to the younger students, so most days I would either walk or ride the bus straight home from school.   Our closest neighbors were about 1/2 mile away, so I didn't socialize much after school either.    First stop of course would be the kitchen, where books etc would be left on the kitchen table, or sometimes on the hall shelf where homework and school books were supposed to be kept.   It was much easier though to drop them on the table while getting an afterschool snack of cookies or ice cream or a peanut butter sandwich, and usually a glass of fresh milk.   Our dinner time was usually 7pm or later after the milking and chores were done, so there wasn't too much danger of our ruining our dinner with a nice sized snack.

The rule for after school was to do our piano practicing and homework, but somehow I also remember quite a lot of TV time.  I'm not quite sure how that all worked with the TV and the Piano being housed in the same room and 2 to 4 teenagers needing to each have their own practice time.  Hmmm.  Could it be that we didn't always put in as much piano practice time as we should have done?  Probably so, especially since there were so many good after-school shows to watch . . . Gilligan's Island, The Brady Bunch, Batman and Robin, Andy Griffith, etc.    I do know that there were many days that I spent several hours reading a good library book after school, either lying on my bed in the room I shared with my younger sister, or curled up in one of the easy chairs in the living room where others were practicing the piano or watching TV.  There weren't very many quiet places in our home after school during my junior high school years.  Things did get quieter as each sibling in turn left home to attend college.  

By about 6:00 or 6:30 pm the cows would pretty much milked, so then it would be my chore to go out and feed the young calves their allotted milk and hay and grain and cleaning up their feeding buckets.  As my older siblings left for college I was also in charge of feeding the cows their evening hay, and once in a while helping with the actual milking, but I usually lucked out being right near the end of the line of the children, but not the very caboose.   After chores it was dinner time, and often time to take my turn setting the table and washing the dinner dishes.

During my junior and senior years of high school I was more involved in activities, so there was often an after school drill team practice or performance at a football or basketball game.  After basketball season was over there would sometimes be practices for FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) events and competitions.  But even then, it was always a wonderful feeling to be able to come home after school.

What did you do after school?